IT’s MY TERN
Shoreline Park, Mountain View, California, Aug 2022
On a typical cloudy San Francisco bay area morning, I set out birdwatching at one of my favorite spots in the vicinity of Shoreline Lake. The goal was to find a recently reported Common Tern (Sterna hirundo), a local rarity. It was a frantic morning with a lot of activity. Sure enough pretty soon, I found the Common Tern, distinguished from the more locally common Forster’s Terns (Sterna forsteri), by its dark carpal bar (see last image in this gallery). However, what really caught my attention was a pretty raucous juvenile Forster’s Tern, clamoring to be fed by its hard-working parent. I noticed the adult coming back with a fresh fish every few minutes. I saw the opportunity and setup my tripod with the camera in position anticipating the next delivery of fish. Junior wasn’t the tidiest eater either, even dropping its fish once. The touch shutter capability helped prevent as little shake as possible while shooting. This was necessary as the shutter speed was pretty low already given the dark cloudy conditions. So I needed as little shaking as possible!
